How tight is too tight?

15-20 in/lb is what most companies recommend.

What kind of screws do you have?
Slotted, Allen, or Torx?

If Allen or Torx, use the L-shape wrench that came with the rings to tighten as hard as is comfortable using the short end of the L-wrench as the handle.
Then another 1/8 more using the long arm of the wrench.

Here's more:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iBNJUgCN0rE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkI_NdabMU0



BTW: You posted this in the wrong forum.
I have ask a mod to move it.

rc

I bought one of those torque screw drivers for that reason. I found out I wasn't getting the mount screws tight enough. It came with torque specs for different screws but I don't have it here with me right now and I'm not going to guess because I would probably tell you wrong.

Before Torx screws, the main problem was not stripping the threads, but stripping the head. And Allen head screws turned out to be worse than slot head in that respect.

Jim

It's not terribly hard to tighten enough to affect the adjustments. IFF the use is set it and forget it that's not a big deal though it may hurt scope life under recoil. For folks who crank the sights and expect consistent by the numbers results too tight can be a big problem. Notice that the commonly accepted solution to extra retention is not a tighter ring but more area and sometimes a friction modifier. Hence either a torque wrench or other measurement (stretch in the screws)